Steve - Thanks for posting. Rick Veitch, from what I understand, actually pencilled a lot of the robots and space ships on Williamson's STAR WARS. Those Giant Walking Robots whatever they're called (I'm probably the only person who doesn't know off the top of my head) and space ships just didn't come naturally to him.

Every time a new book of ChrisW essays comes in, I SWEAR I'm just going to skim it and inside of a day or two I've pretty much read the whole thing. But I'm pretty much his only "customer". If Dave Sim likes your work, odds are your audience is always going to be in the single digits (theory? fact?). Anyway, looking forward to next week's TOP TEN ONE-LINERS IN CHRIS WOERNER's INVASION.

"Invasion" is the only book that can be ordered directly from me. All my other printed books are in a storage unit far away. I've generally charged 10$ a copy, but almost all of my sales have been face-to-face, and the very few long distance orders I've had demonstrate that shipping costs will wipe out even a pretense at profit. Just shipping Dave his copy is enough.

[My previous books were all shipped via Fed Ex, and a couple of ladies worked there for a few years straight. They knew that I ordered a lot of stuff from amazon, and once or twice a year I would get in several big boxes, and a week or so after that I would come in, buy and address envelopes with books, and remembered that one would always go to "Dave" in Canada.]

Anyway, if you're interested, hit me up and we'll see what can be worked out as far as payment and shipping. All of my books are available on Amazon Kindle for a cheaper prices, so that's another way to go. And thanks to Tim for posting the Amazon link to "Invasion."

Spent a pleasant half hour last night going through INVASION for one-liners and now have my Top Ten ready to go. Of course, by folding down the corners of the relevant pages, my copy is no longer in Post Office Mint (technical term for the shape of a book mailed without padding inside the envelope), but, small price to pay. :)

I have to say, a copy with corners folded down by Dave Sim is probably worth more than a copy that isn't. Probably the only book I've produced that's worth more is the copy of "Double" autographed by Weird Al Yankovic Himself, a story that is told in "Invasion."

A distant third would probably be the books that I've made my own corrections to, and I gave those up long ago as pointless distractions. If I ever sell enough copies to make a second printing worthwhile, yes I will make corrections. If I ever sell enough copies on Kindle to justify a new version, I'll format that particular book for Kindle. Until then, it is what it is and embarrassing typos and awkward phrasing are a small price to pay for not trying to fix everything and getting in the way of the next book.

One of those things I learned from Dave (and others.) Do the best you can, finish it and move on.

Yeah, that's great when you can afford a secretary [or Diana Schutz] but the effort of finding a proofreader and paying him/her/it with anything besides sweet, sweet lovin' just sounds ludicrous to me.

Dave even made the point in the "Latter Days" endnotes that 'I really should have a secretary for these kinds of things' before realizing that explaining to a secretary what you're looking for is going to take as much time and energy as doing it yourself.

What's worse than the spelling and grammar errors and other typos is when you read a paragraph and see how it could have been written much better. "Schwienhund! You could not think of the right word zen, but now you haff found a way to cut the sentence in haff? Ve spent howrs trying to format zat page, und only now you haff solved ze problem, affter ze book has been printed?"

Um, yeah. That's the life of an artist in any medium, you only think of a better way to do something after it's already in print and you can never fix it again, unless you get a second printing.

Believe me, Jeff, if I could think of a way to justify the time and money for someone who would fix my simple mistakes and standardize my formatting, I would do it in a heartbeat. Other than getting a regular cook, that's the only reason I can think of for getting married. "Sweetie, you've got a dangling participle here. No, that is not a sign that I'm in the mood! I'm correcting your mistakes and you have the temerity to complain that I'm oh just take me now darling!"

I value it, but not enough to waste time, money and energy that could be put to better use. As always, I turn to Gerhard for wisdom: "But it was a monthly book, so you try your best and resolve to do better next time." [Cerebus Cover Art Treasury, Issue #67]

Dave is thinking about his legacy and wants to get things right in a way he didn't have time for on a monthly schedule. He and I aren't remotely on the same level, and adapting my standards to his would be as damaging to me as adapting my standards would be to him. I'm more interested in averaging a book/year schedule, warts and all, than I am in making everything look nice and shiny.